Overnite Transportation will appeal a split decision by the National Labor Relations Board ordering the company to bargain with the Teamsters in four locations where the company has contested the results of two elections.
The service centers are located in Detroit, Bowling Green and Lexington, Ky., and Buffalo, N.Y.
Overnite has argued, under board law, that employees should be given a new election where they are the victims of a widespread campaign of violence and intimidation. The company submitted uncontested evidence that the ongoing strike initiated by the Teamsters on Oct. 24, 1999, "has been plagued with serious, premeditated violence and other intimidation," and that action had invalidated the board's prior recognition of the Teamsters as their bargaining agent at the four centers. Overnite also argued that the board made mistakes when it held elections in 1995 and 1996 where the Teamsters intimidated employees by videotaping and photographing them before the vote.
The ongoing strike against Overnite has garnered little support among company employees. More than 95 percent have ignored the union's call to walk off the job. At the four centers affected by the NLRB's March 8 ruling, just 11 of 422 employees are honoring the union's picket lines.
To date, 57 Overnite-manned vehicles have been shot at since the Teamsters began their job action in October 1999. Despite Teamster claims of innocence, judges in 14 states and 21 localities have issued restraining orders to limit the union's activities against Overnite. In addition, a federal task force has been investigating possible Teamster links to the shootings and numerous acts of assault and vandalism aimed at Overnite and its employees since the protest began. The U.S. District Court in Tennessee has denied a Teamster motion to dismiss a lawsuit naming International Brotherhood of Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa and other executive members of the union as defendants in a complaint of orchestrated racketeering, including more than 50 acts of attempted murder.
In a dissent to the 2-to-1 NLRB decision, board member Peter Hurtgen said that he would grant Overnite a hearing on whether Teamster violence has disqualified the union as a representative for employees in the four units at issue. He rejected the majority's contention that the local unions were not involved with the violence orchestrated by the International. Hurtgen wrote, "I note that the International misconduct was extensive and widespread, and it was done on behalf of the locals' effort to become the representatives. In these circumstances it would strain credulity to believe that the locals were wholly unaware of the misconduct."
Company spokesman Ira Rosenfeld said, "Overnite agrees with Mr. Hurtgens' dissenting opinion and plans to appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals based on that dissent. Under long standing board precedent, unions that go outside the law and use violence to secure representation are not entitled to the benefits of a bargaining order."